American Woodworker Magzine Article -descriptive version

Descriptive version of article written about GEORGE WURTZEL in American Woodworker Magazine april / May 2014 - Kurzwell reader

Cover of American Woodworker Magazine april/May 2014

George Wurtzel

A Great American Woodworker-- An Artisan’s Life Story

Blind, but visionary.

by Spike Carlsen

Photo of George in tan baseball cap, denim shirt and bib overalls, complete with mustache and beard--in the photo George is applying spring clamps to the edging of the small sailboat discussed in the sidebar at the end of the article.

Sixty-Something Year Old George Wurtzel has turned porch posts for mansions, built furniture for R&B stars and crafted hundreds of kitchen cabinets. He's run a cabinetmaking and countertop fabrication shop, worked as a Volkswagen repairman and taught industrial arts. He's attended design fairs in Milan Italy and skied 500 miles across Finland. An impressive resume--made even more impressive by the fact that George is blind. "That I'm blind is no more challenging to me than a lefty trying to use right-handed scissors," he explains. "You just need to use different scissors."

Poor vision; great passion

"You've got to follow your passion in life regardless of the obstacles in your way," George says. "Never allow someone who doesn't have to pay the consequences dictate the consequences of your life."

George started life with poor vision and it deteriorated from there. But that never kept him from working with his hands. His grandfather, a carpenter and cabinetmaker, introduced George to woodworking. His father, an excavator, introduced him to mechanics. "Most kids had swingsets in their backyards. We have backhoes, cranes and a thousand acres to play on." But his mother, who grew up on a farm and was extremely creative, was the one who taught George that he could make anything. "On a farm you grow up learning to do stuff--and she knew how to do stuff. It rubbed off on me."

George primarily attended schools for the blind, where he learned to read braille and navigate a world designed by and for sighted people. While attending one such high school--one that offered metalworking, woodworking and auto mechanic classes--George realized he was gifted with his hands. "Some people pooh-pooh schools for the blind, but I feel like I'm a better person for it," he reflects, "because there was no one to tell me I couldn't do something because I couldn't see."

After deciding to become a mechanic, George worked in Volkswagen and bicycle repair shops. But he didn't like getting greasy, so he turned to woodworking. "Being the stubborn cuss I am, I just started building stuff," he explains. "I built a few pieces of lawn furniture and put them oputside. Within a month I got an order for a hundred chairs. I put a radial arm saw and a jointer on my brother's charge card and I was in business."

Here is a wonderful article about fellow-member George Wurtzel that will appear shortly in American Woodworker Magazine.

The attachment is the PDF of the article and I've included the test below.

George WurtzelA Great American Woodworker-- An Artisan’s Life Story

Blind, but visionary.by Spike Carlsen

Photo of George in tan baseball cap, denim shirt and bib overalls, complete with mustache and beard--in the photo George is applying spring clamps to the edging of the small sailboat discussed in the sidebar at the end of the article.

Sixty-Something Year Old George Wurtzel has turned porch posts for mansions, built furniture for R&B stars and crafted hundreds of kitchen cabinets. He's run a cabinetmaking and countertop fabrication shop, worked as a Volkswagen repairman and taught industrial arts. He's attended design fairs in Milan Italy and skied 500 miles across Finland. An impressive resume--made even more impressive by the fact that George is blind. "That I'm blind is no more challenging to me than a lefty trying to use right-handed scissors," he explains. "You just need to use different scissors."

Poor vision; great passion

"You've got to follow your passion in life regardless of the obstacles in your way," George says. "Never allow someone who doesn't have to pay the consequences dictate the consequences of your life."George started life with poor vision and it deteriorated from there. But that never kept him from working with his hands. His grandfather, a carpenter and cabinetmaker, introduced George to woodworking. His father, an excavator, introduced him to mechanics. "Most kids had swingsets in their backyards. We have backhoes, cranes and a thousand acres to play on." But his mother, who grew up on a farm and was extremely creative, was the one who taught George that he could make anything. "On a farm you grow up learning to do stuff--and she knew how to do stuff. It rubbed off on me."George primarily attended schools for the blind, where he learned to read braille and navigate a world designed by and for sighted people. While attending one such high school--one that offered metalworking, woodworking and auto mechanic classes--George realized he was gifted with his hands. "Some people pooh-pooh schools for the blind, but I feel like I'm a better person for it," he reflects, "because there was no one to tell me I couldn't do something because I couldn't see."After deciding to become a mechanic, George worked in Volkswagen and bicycle repair shops. But he didn't like getting greasy, so he turned to woodworking. "Being the stubborn cuss I am, I just started building stuff," he explains. "I built a few pieces of lawn furniture and put them oputside. Within a month I got an order for a hundred chairs. I put a radial arm saw and a jointer on my brother's charge card and I was in business."Business boomed for nine years. George's shop expandedto 5000 square feet and eight employees. During this time,he built a piano-shaped coffee table. A one-third scale modelof a Steinway & Sons Model D concert grand, it was presentedto Stevie Wonder—George’s former classmate—as an outstandingachievement award.

But when interest rates soared and the economy crumbledin 1982, so did George’s fortunes. He lost his shop,house and livelihood before deciding to relocate fromMichigan to North Carolina. “You know you’re not doingso well when you can move everything you own on a Greyhoundbus,” he recalls.George applied for and was accepted into the CatawbaValley Community College Furniture Production Managementprogram. The entry process was not without incident. “Iwalked into the admissions office with my white cane and thefirst thing the guy said was ‘We have a problem.’ I said, ‘Who’swe?’ He said ‘You’re blind.’ I replied, ‘I noticed when we shookhands that you were missing two fingers.’ He explained he’dlost them in a woodworking accident. I told him that all I waslooking for was the same opportunity to cut off my fingersthat he’d had—and I got in!”While finishing his course work, George was hired to setup a cabinet-manufacturing shop. He designed the space,bought and set up all the machinery, and wound up managingthe facility, which produced up to eight kitchens per week.A few years later he went back into business on his own,naming his new company “SellAmerica.” “I wasn’t sure whatI was going to make,” he recalls. “I figured a name like thatwould allow me to sell anything,” . George designed a triangulardisplay box for veteran interment flags and establishedaccounts with 2500 funeral homes and the armed forces.He eventually sold the company and spent the proceeds on“drugs, sex and rock and roll—and the rest foolishly.” For awhile he dabbled in raising horses, worked in a bakery andran a camp for blind kids.In 2009, George moved to Minneapolis to work as anindustrial arts teacher for an organization called BlindnessLearning in New Dimensions (BLIND). He enjoyed workingwith students facing the same challenges he had faced. “Butyou know,” he explains, “when you work by yourself for along time, you like to do things your own way.” In 2011, heagain dove headlong back into the furniture-building business,this time concentrating on a line of puzzle furniture.

Designing without erasers

George’s puzzle furniture is based on the interlocking woodpuzzles his grandfather made for him when he was a child.The furniture has a Craftsman-style look and feel .

Designed for people living an “urban, nomadic lifestyle,”according to George, it can be easily assembled, disassembledand moved. Each piece is held together with a singlefastener—a hidden thumbscrew. George has applied the basicdesign to create coffee, end and dining tables, as well as bookshelvesand a laptop desk that adjusts for standing or sitting.The joinery is complex and precise. As with all of hispieces, George designed everything in his head. “Gooddesign can be felt, not just seen,” he explains. When askedabout the challenges of designing cerebrally rather than onpaper, George says, “Creativity doesn’t come out of youreyeballs; it comes out of your head. Some people are blessedwith the ability to sing, some with playing baseball. I’ve beenblessed with the ability to see everything in my mind’s eye.When I’m designing something I can look at it from everyangle by rotating it, using my brain’s built-in computermouse.” George maintains most people design with a pencilbecause there’s an eraser on one end. “My eraser is the scrapbin,” he jokes.

Working in darkness

George’s shop looks like any other woodworking shop. Itsports a drill press, miter saw, bandsaw, half a dozen routersand stacks of wood. A huge lathe—large enough to turnporch posts—occupies one corner. As George lives in an olderpart of Minneapolis, he’s recently found a niche reproducingarchitectural millwork

Photo of large house column sitting atop a newly turned based--looks to be about 16 to 18 inches in diameter.Caption reads: Reproducing architectural millwork is one of George's specialties.

A massive Felder multi-machine that incorporates ashaper, jointer, planer and rolling-table saw occupies thecenter of George’s shop (see photo, page 24, bottom left).One tool that might look foreign to most woodworkers isthe small “click ruler” that George keeps in his back pocket.

Photo of Click Rule and Rotomatic

The heart of this ruler is a 12" long 16tpi threaded rodwith one side flattened and scribed in 1/2" increments.This rod slides inside a tube that has a stop at one end and aspring-loaded ball bearing located precisely 6" away. Eachtime the ball bearing engages the next thread, it clicks—indicating a 1/16" change in dimension.By engaging the stop and adding together the 6" fixeddimension, the number of exposed 1/2" scribe marks andthe audible clicks, this ruler measures up to 12" in 1/16"increments.To measure in 1/64" increments, George uses a “roto”ruler that’s also based on 16tpi threaded rod. This rulersimply has an adjustable nut with a square head. Eachquarter turn of the nut measures 1/64". Screwing on additionalthreaded rods extends the capacity of both rulers in12" increments.George uses a scribe for marking, rather than a pencil,so he can feel the lines. Two other tools he’s fond of are theaudio-output tape measure he uses for rough measurementsand the push-button remote that allows him to control hisdust-collection system from any place in the shop.George doesn’t use a blade guard on his tablesaw.Because he works primarily by feel, he says, the guard continuouslygets in the way. Yet, after 40 years of woodworkinghe still has 9-7/8ths of his fingers; he nipped one while doinga repetitive task at the end of a day. We’ve all been there.As a person who “sees” with his fingertips, Georgedoesn’t understand people who focus on how a piece of furniturelooks and ignore how it feels. When it comes to sandingand finishing, he’s a perfectionist. “Don’t be in a hurry,”he explains, and then adds—with a twinkle in his eye, “If it’sworth the effort to build it, it’s worth the effort to sand it.”Some people feel a piece of furniture or wood art shouldstand aesthetically on its own; others feel a greater appreciationcan be gained by understanding the era in which itwas created or knowing who created it. George’s furnitureand turnings surely stand on their own, but knowing theman—and his story—makes them even more special. Andyes, George’s eyes do twinkle.

Sidebar

Photo of George with a Small Sailboat Under Construction

A Special Project

Maire died at the age of 24—but not before she andGeorge met face-to-face to discuss an idea—building asailboat that would allow her to complete the journeyin the afterlife. This vessel would carry Maire’s ashesto the sea, following the route described in the book.Based on her wishes, George crafted a prototype andtested its seaworthiness using bags of sugar as surrogateashes. Then he built Maire’s boat.This summer, Maire’s boat will be launched fromNorthern Michigan with the goal of making its waythrough the Great Lakes “to the sea.” This messagefrom Maire will be painted on it: “My name is MaireKent. I died of sarcoma cancer. I’m making my way tothe ocean. If you find me, please set me back on mypath. I will bless you from heaven.”Keith and his Emmy-winning production companyVisionalist Entertainment Productions will filmthe voyage, documenting how people react to Maire’scustom-built vessel and the journey she’s on.“We’re not sure when the boat will reach the ocean,”George explains. “But we know two things: First, wewant it to travel down the Detroit River during thefireworks celebration on the Fourth of July. Second, it’sdefinitely not sturdy enough to go over Niagara Falls.”For more information about “Maire’s Journey,” visitv-prod.com.